Tainted Obligation
by SpreadtheIove
Summary: Ewelani Kahala ran to her mother's old home for an escape from her grisly world. While there she forms an unlikely friendship with four boys and must choose between the life she's always known and the one she's always wanted. Full summary inside.
1. Disruptions

TAINTED OBLIGATION

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><p>SUMMARY<p>

Ewelani Kahala's whole life has revolved around the idea that "they come first." Ewelani is a dhampir, a mix between human and vampire, who's purpose was to protect the Moroi…...until a Strigoi attack leaves her mother dead and her questioning everything. After graduation she ran off to the only place she's ever really been able to call home. During her stay at her mother's old house she encounters four boys who are not what they seem and forms an unlikely friendship with them. She came here for an escape. She never expected to find friends, find love, or even to find herself. More confused than ever she has to make a choice. Will she return to her duty and her people or leave behind everything she's ever known for love.

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><p>Chapter One:: Disruptions<p>

As I descended the stairs and ran out the back door I started stretching. I let the music pumping out of my ear buds wash over me and energize me for my run. I began running down the side of the yard to the front of the house and out onto the road. As I ran past the house next door I saw that it had finally been rented out. I caught a glimpse of couple guys my age hauling stuff inside. Most likely they were students at the university down the road. It was mid August, the right time for students to move into off campus housing. Fantastic, there goes my peace and quiet.

I kept to my normal pace for the first half of the run until I reached my turn around point and then I kicked it into high gear for the run back. Every day I tried to push myself a little harder, a little faster. As the sweat ran down the side of my face and a pain hit me in my side I pushed through it. I was rewarded when I got to the house and looked down at my watch. I'd finally knocked five minutes off my overall time since I'd gotten here. I smiled and began to stretch out again before heading back inside.

I grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and walked down into the basement where I put my iPod on the dock, hitting the play button to let music flood through the house. I nodded my head to the beat as I grabbed the jump rope off the wall and did a set of one hundred jumps. Tossing that aside I headed to the bench press and lifted a few sets. As I did another round of cool down stretches I decided to skip the rest of the work out for the day in celebration of my accomplishment…and my knee was starting to bother me some.

It still felt weird to be on a daytime schedule and I decided to take advantage of the sun and the last month of summer by laying outside on a lounge chair. I changed quickly into a black bikini of mine and headed outside.

I lay there and smiled to myself a bit. It felt like the warmth from the sun was reaching inside me and warming the icy thing that was my soul. It was a wonderful feeling, this peace. I wasn't used to it. My whole life had been focused on others. Dedicated to keeping other people safe from harm. My personal happiness was not a concern. _They come first. _It was a phrase that haunted me everyday. An anger swelled inside of me, no, they don't come first. My mother should have come first. That day came back to mind with a vengeance.

In the middle of my reverie I heard knocks on the front door. I snapped out of it, whipped off my sunglasses, and bolted out of my lounge chair in record time. I was up against the back of the house, hidden in shadow. I reached out my senses. Who had found me? The Guardians surely wouldn't come here? There's no point, I'd made my opinions pretty clear when I'd left. It's been almost two months. Did they get sick of waiting for me to make up my mind?

I snuck around to the front of the house and peeked at the attacker on the porch. My face scrunched in confusion. A human. What did he want with me?

"What do you want?"

He jumped and whipped around to face me. Putting a hand on his chest he laughed, "Jesus, you scared me."

I scowled, "Can I help you?"

His smile faltered, "Well I was looking for Ms. Kahala."

I narrowed my eyes at him and took a step back as he said my mother's last name, "How are you affiliated with her?"

He raised his brows at my question, "We're neighbors. I lived over there last year," he said pointing to the house I'd seen people moving into earlier, "I left for a few months to go back home and we just got back. I just wanted to tell her hello."

I let off on my scowl a bit but remained silent. I couldn't bring myself to say it out loud. I hadn't had to recently.

His face lit up in revelation, "You're Ewelani, right? Ms. Kahala's daughter. She showed us pictures of you last year. My name's Caleb Danvers."

He walked towards me and held out his hand, I eyed it warily for a second before placing mine in his.

"It's nice to finally meet you, I'm sure the guys will be excited to see you as well. Your mom raves about you, you know."

"My mother died two months ago Caleb Danvers."

His smile instantly vanished, "Oh no. I'm so sorry, I didn't know."

"How could you?"

"Right. I'm so sorry Ewelani please let me know if you need anything. You're welcome to come over to the house anytime. How long are you staying here?"

I shrugged, "Indefinitely."

A blonde haired boy came up the driveway to stand next to Caleb and smiled wolfishly at me. At that moment I realized that I was only in the small bikini. I'd purposely worn the size too small one so that I'd have less of a tan line. Shit.

"Well hello beautiful. Where's your mother? I want to call her and tell her thank you." He said this last bit as he looked me up and down. Caleb elbowed the newcomer hard in the side.

"What? This is the famous Ewelani Kahala right? I never forget a pretty face."

I raised my eyebrows and directed my attention back to Caleb, "How many of you are there?"

"Please excuse Reid he's an idiot. There's four of us. Me, Reid.."

At this point "Reid" interrupted him, "Reid Garwin. Our friends Tyler and Pogue are staying there too but I'm sure you wont be too impressed with them after meeting me."

I rolled my eyes and opened the door to go back inside, "I'm sure I won't be. It was nice meeting you Caleb." I shut the door behind me and leaned against it, sinking down to the floor. I could hear the boys on the other side.

"Why'd she look so glum. Those were some of my best lines."

"Ms. Kahala just died Reid."

"I am such an idiot."

I closed my eyes and placed my head on my knees. How many times would I have to say it before it didn't hurt anymore?

…..

This new story is going to be a crossover between Vampire Academy and The Covenant. It's set after Shadow Kiss, after Lissa & Rose's graduation. If anyone hasn't read Vampire Academy I'll try to fill in as much detail as possible so that you can still understand it. However, I highly recommend reading the series because it's fantastic : )

As always please R&R


	2. Cheese Balls

Chapter two:: Cheese Whiz!

I sat on the old leather couch in front of the TV contemplating getting a bowl of the ice cream I had stashed in the freezer. Peanut Butter Fudge, my favorite, vanilla ice cream with thick ribbons of chocolate fudge. What's not to love? I usually don't indulge myself very often but after talking to the new neighbors I craved a piece of my mother and we used to eat this together all the time. I smiled as I watched True Blood. It had become a guilty pleasure of mine, along with the Vampire diaries, I just couldn't get enough of it; it cracked me up. All those misconceptions of vampires, ridiculous. As I sat there enjoying myself quite thoroughly there was yet another knock at the door. I picked up the remote and pressed pause before glancing out the window to see another guy standing on the porch holding something in his hands that looked suspiciously like cheese balls. I scrunched my face up in confusion and opened the door. He was tall with dark brown untidy hair and dark blue eyes.

"So are you Tyler or Pogue?"

"Tyler Simms," he said smiling, "Nice memory."

"Nice balls."

At his look of confusion I pointed towards his plate, "Your cheese balls."

"Oh!" He exclaimed as he looked down and then back up at me, "Sorry." He smiled at me and shifted the plate in his hands. "It's a chocolate chip cheese ball and the other one's a cream cheese with pecans."

"I know," I said, looking at them wistfully. My mother used to make them on Christmas every year.

"Yeah," he said with a small frown, "your mom gave me the recipe this past Christmas. When you couldn't come home she brought over dinner for Caleb and me. We'd both stayed over the holidays for winter classes."

"That sounds like her."

"Anyway I made these for you. I wanted to come over and say how sorry I am for you. Your mom was the kindest woman I'd ever met. It's truly a loss that she's gone."

These words that I'd heard so often, usually pissed me off, but for some reason, when _he_ said them I felt like he understood. It was like he actually did feel my loss.

"Thank you. Would you like to come in?"

He smiled, "Yeah, that'd be nice."

As he walked past me I stared out the door in shock. Why had I done that? I don't even know this guy. Why did I have this feeling like I did?

I shut the door and turned back around but he was gone. Puzzled I went to walk into the kitchen to find him but he emerged with a butter knife out of the drawer setting it on the plate. He sat the plate on the coffee table in front of the couch and sat down.

"So what're you watching?"

I dove for the remote and quickly changed the channel, "Nothing worth watching. I was about to put on something else anyway. Any suggestions?"

He thought for a moment, "Well I haven't seen Scary Movie in a while."

I raised my eyebrows, "Nice grammar. You have to be a bit more specific than that though."

He laughed, "You've never seen it have you?" He reached over and took the remote from me and began searching through Netflix. He frowned. "I don't see it but since I have the DVD it's not that big of a deal. I'll head over to the house and grab it." He danced out the door and dashed over to the big house. At that moment I jumped up and ran to the bathroom to check my teeth and hair. I applied a small dash of eyeliner and ran a brush through my hair before I caught myself. What in the name of Queen Tatiana was I doing? I was preening for a human boy? Who I didn't know? I shook my head and walked back into the living room.

He got back a few minutes later with Caleb, Reid, and I assume Pogue in tow. He grinned sheepishly at me, "Sorry, movie nights really draw the crowd in."

I waved my hand to dismiss it, "Pogue, right?"

"A lady who knows her attractive men; I like it."

"What is with you two and the pickup lines? You have to get some new material."

Caleb and Tyler laughed and took seats on either side of me on the couch. Reid sat down in the armchair and Pogue took the remaining one.

"My material's just fine," Reid pouted.

Caleb grinned, "Just start the movie baby boy." Tyler smiled back and pressed play.

At the end of the film my sides hurt from laughing. I'd been out of practice. The movie was funny but when Reid and Tyler got up and acted out the part with the boot, among other parts, I nearly died.

As the guys went to leave I was actually sad to see them go. Tyler was the last out the door.

"Here, take these," I said as I offered him the little that remained of the cheese balls. The guys had demolished them.

He shook his head, "No way, they're for you. It was nice to me you Ewelani, I hope I see you soon."

As he walked down the steps I called out to him, "It's just Lani." He threw a grin over his shoulder at me and continued on his way.

…

R&R


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